I cover the cities of Andover, Blaine and Ramsey. I have worked at ABC Newspapers since August 2007.

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Man pleads guilty to threatening co-worker at bar in East Bethel

Published August 3, 2012 at 7:00 am

A 20-year-old Andover man pleaded guilty July 23 in Anoka County District Court to a felony terroristic threats charge.

Eddie Nora Lewis Mitchell will be sentenced Sept. 25 for threatening a Fat Boys Bar and Grill co-worker with a knife. A felony second-degree assault charge will be dismissed as part of a plea agreement.

According to the criminal complaint, Mitchell was a cook at the East Bethel establishment when the Dec. 1, 2011 incident happened. Police were dispatched at 10:12 p.m. that evening to the restaurant and stopped Mitchell as he was leaving the scene. He had a large amount of blood on his white T-shirt and had three small cuts on his right hand. He told police that he had grabbed a knife and used it in self-defense against his co-worker.

Mitchell was having a heated argument with another employee when he pulled a small pocket knife out and opened it, this employee told police. According to the complaint, the employee grabbed Mitchell’s forearm and took the knife away.

Mitchell then went farther into the kitchen to grab a bigger knife, which he waved in the co-worker’s face, cutting him.

According to the complaint, the employee said co-workers at this point came into the kitchen and restrained Mitchell, who began to threaten that he was going home to get a gun and would return to the restaurant to shoot the employee.

Mitchell claimed that the co-worker put his hands around his throat and took away the pocket knife, which Mitchell said he had out to pick at his fingernails. He said he was shocked and upset, so he grabbed another knife.

In his post-Miranda statement, he denied making a motion to cut his co-worker and he was unsure how his co-worker was cut on his face.

According to the complaint, Mitchell admitted that he made a comment that he was going to get a gun and shoot his co-worker, but he told police that he really did not mean it and he was only upset that his co-worker had put his hands on him.